Adler Six
See also the Semi Adler and Adler III (4.5×6cm), Adler A (4.5×6cm), Adler B (4.5×6cm), Adler C (4.5×6cm), Adler Four (4×4cm), and Vest Adler (4×6.5cm). The Adler Six The name "Adler" was clearly used to demonstrate Japan's alliance with Germany. During the war period, Riken often used such names (they also sold a Heil camera), or other "patriotic" names. (アドラーシックス) are 6×6 folding cameras, sold by Asahi Kōgaku Kōgyō and its parent company Riken Kōgaku Kōgyō (predecessor of Ricoh), from 1938 to the early 1940s. Adler VI (1938) Documents A 6×6cm Adler camera was announced in the August 1938 issue of . Column in August 1938, p.37. In the document, it is merely described as a bellows camera, with no further detail. The name is given as "Adler IV" (アドラーIV), an obvious mistake. (The true Adler Four was a 4×4cm folding camera, announced in the same issue of the magazine.) Another 1938 document reportedly has an Adler VI (アドラーVI型), certainly the same camera, priced at ¥90 with f/4.5 lens and ¥100 with f/3.5 lens. "Riken Konzern geppō" (理研コンツエルン月報), quoted in Tanaka, p.16 of no.14. The document lists various other Adler cameras, and offers ten-month payment plans. Tanaka, p.16 of no.14. Possible surviving example This early Adler VI, for which no original picture is available, is surely different from the horizontal folding camera that was sold in the early 1940s. It probably corresponds to a rebadged version of the First Six by Kuribayashi. One surviving Adler 6×6cm camera, clearly based on the First Six, is pictured in an article by Tanaka. Example pictured in Tanaka, p.17 of no.14. The picture is reproduced in this page of the Ricoh official website, where the camera is wrongly described as an Adler III. It has the name Adler embossed in the leather covering at the front, and a folding optical finder for square exposures. Its shutter is a Peerless (5–150, B, T), marked PEERLESS at the bottom, with the round AKK logo of Asahi Kōgaku Kōgyō on the right. The lens is an Adler Anastigmat f/4.5. Adler Six (early 1940s) Description The Adler Six sold in the early 1940s is a horizontal folding camera, copy of the Ikonta 6×6. There is a folding optical finder in the middle of the top plate. The film is advanced by a key at the left end — as seen by the photographer. The body release is on the right and the folding bed release is on the left, next to the viewfinder. There are strap lugs at both ends of the body. The back is hinged to the right, and locked by a sliding bar on the left. The shutter is a Roico I (T, B, 5–200) with setting lever. This page of the Ricoh official website says that the shutter is a Roico II with B, 10–200 speeds, but this is probably a mistake. The rim is engraved ROICO I at the bottom and the speed settings are inscribed T, B, 200, 100, 50, 25, 10, 5 in that order. The camera exists in two versions: the Adler Six I with a Ricoh Anastigmat 75/4.5 lens, and the Adler Six II with a three-element Three elements: , lens item Lb14. Tanaka, p.19 of no.14, and this page of the Ricoh website say four elements but this is probably a mistake. Ricoh Anastigmat 75/3.5 lens. Advertisements and other documents The official list of set prices compiled in October 1940 and published in January 1941 has an "Adler Six" for ¥79 and an "Adler Six II" for ¥94. , type 4, sections 3 and 4. It is not known for sure if they correspond to the camera advertised in 1942 or if they are a continuation of the 1938 model mentioned above. An advertisement dated July 1942 lists the Adler Six I for and the Adler Six II for . Advertisement in Asahi Graph (15 July 1942), reproduced at Gochamaze. An October 1942 advertisement in lists the model II alone, at an unchanged price. Advertisement reproduced in , p.58. The Adler Six still appears in the government inquiry listing Japanese camera production as of April 1943, with the Ricoh f/3.5 lens only. , item 93. Surviving example The only surviving example known so far is an Adler Six II, pictured in an article by Tanaka and in the Ricoh official website. Example pictured in Tanaka, p.18 of no.14, and in this page of the Ricoh website. It has the Ricoh Anastigmat 7.5cm f/3.5 lens no.10668. Notes Bibliography Original documents * Item 93. * Type 4, sections 3 and 4. * (新光グラフ) August 1938. "Orinpikku kamera nyūsu" (オリンピックカメラニュース, Olympic camera news). P.37. Recent sources * Item 8. * Tanaka Masao (田中政雄). "Rikō kamera no nagare" (リコーカメラの流れ, Evolution of the Ricoh cameras). Pp.8–11. * Tanaka Masao (田中政雄). "Senzen no kamera 2: Supuringu kamera" (戦前のカメラ2・スプリングカメラ, Prewar cameras 2: folding cameras). Pp.16–9. The Adler Six is not listed in . Links In Japanese: * Pages from the Ricoh camera list of the Ricoh official website: ** Adler Six (1942 model) ** the page on the Adler III mistakenly shows a picture of an Adler VI (1938 model) * Advertisements reproduced in the Japanese camera page and the camera company page of the Gochamaze website: ** Advertisement for the Adler Six I and II published in the 15 July 1942 issue of Asahi Graph ** Advertisement for Riken cameras and lenses picturing an Adler Six, published in the 19 August 1942 issue of Asahi Graph Category: Japanese 6x6 viewfinder folding Category: Ricoh Category: A Category: 1938